Belén Méndez-Naya obtained an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1987 and a PhD in English Linguistics in 1995, with a dissertation, supervised by Teresa Fanego, on complementation in Old English. From January 1988 to October 1997 she worked as a researcher and lecturer in the English Department of Santiago de Compostela, and in November 1997 she obtained a position as Associate Professor of English. She has also taught and/or carried out research at the Universities of Aachen, Glasgow, Manchester, Trier, Vigo, Edinburgh and Freiburg.

Jointly with María José López-Couso, Belén is the PI of a new project recently awarded to the team (grant FFI2017-86884-P, National Programme for Excellence in Scientific and Technical Research, Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness; 49,610 euros plus one four-year research position). Her main research interests are grammaticalization processes in the history of English, clausal complementation and mood selection in Old and Middle English, and the development of intensifiers and pragmatic markers in the history of English. She has been invited to deliver talks and plenary lectures at the Universities of A Coruña, Helsinki, Jaén, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Seville (Universidad Pablo Olavide), Vigo (SELIM International Conference 28), and La Rioja (Old English Syntax and Semantics Seminar).

Belén teaches History of the English Language I (undergraduate, 3rd year), Sociolinguistics (undergraduate, 4th year), Varieties of English (undergraduate, 3rd year), and two MA courses on Research Methods in English Language and Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics.

(2016). Review of Ayumi Miura, Middle English verbs of emotion and impersonal constructions: Verb meaning and syntax in diachrony (Oxford Studies in the History of English. Oxford: OUP, 2015). English Language and Linguistics 21/1: 155-161.

(2014). "Out of the spatial domain: 'Out'-intensifiers in the history of English". Folia Linguistica Historica 35: 241-274.

(2014). "Epistemic parentheticals with seem: Late Modern English in focus". In The syntax of Late Modern English, ed. by Marianne Hundt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 291-308 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(2014). "From clause to pragmatic
marker: A study of the development of like parentheticals in American English". Journal of Historical Pragmatics 15.1: 66-91 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(2014). "The use of if as a declarative complementizer in English: Some theoretical and empirical considerations". In Diachrony and synchrony in English corpus linguistics, ed. by Alejandro Alcaraz-Sintes & Salvador Valera-Hernández (Linguistic Insights Series 181). Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 85-107 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(2012). "A preliminary study of the history of the intensifier utterly". In At a time of crisis: English and American studies in Spain. Works from the 35th AEDEAN Conference, ed. by Sara Martín Alegre, Melissa Moyer, Elisabet Pladevall & Susagna Tubau. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 368-375. ISBN-10: 84-695-4273-7.

(2012). "Compiling British English legal texts: A contribution to ARCHER”. In Creation and use of historical English corpora in Spain, ed. by Nila Vázquez. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 5-19 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(2012). “On the origin and development of comparative complementizers in English: Evidence from historical corpora”. In Creation and use of historical English corpora in Spain, ed. by Nila Vázquez. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 311-333 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(2010). "Intensifiers in competition: The picture from early English medical writing". In Early Modern English medical texts: Corpus description and studies, ed. by Irma Taavitsainen & Päivi Pahta. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 193-215 [first author, with Päivi Pahta].

(2008). "Introduction". Special issue, English Language and Linguistics 12.2: 213-219.

(2008). “On the history of downright”. In Méndez-Naya, ed. English intensifiers. Special issue, English Language and Linguistics 12.2: 267-287.

(2008). "'The which is most and right harde to answere': Intensifying right and most in earlier English". In English Historical Linguistics 2006. Vol. II: Lexical and semantic change, ed. by Richard Dury, Maurizio Gotti & Marina Dossena. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 31-51.

(2007). "He nas nat right fat: On the origin and development of the intensifier right". In Studies in Middle English forms and meanings, ed. by Gabriella Mazzon. (Studies in English Medieval Language and Literature 19). Frankfurt am Main, etc.: Peter Lang, pp. 191-207.

(2006). "Adjunct, modifier, discourse marker: On the various functions of right in the history of English." Folia Linguistica Historica 27: 141-169.

(1996). "On the use of the subjunctive and
modals in Old and Middle English dependent commands
and requests. Evidence from the Helsinki Corpus". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen XCVII:
411-421 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(1996). Finite complementation in Old English. A corpus-based study. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. ISBN 8481212881.

(1996). "How to consider how: On how as a declarative complementiser in the history of English". In Proceedings of the 19th International AEDEAN Conference, Vigo, December 1995, ed. by Javier Pérez-Guerra. Vigo: Universidade de Vigo, pp. 347-352 [second author, with María José López-Couso].

(1995). "Review of Bruce Mitchell 1995: An invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England". SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature 5:142-146.

(1993). "The study of English subject clauses from a diachronic point of view: A preliminary approach". In Papers from the 4th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval
English Language and Literature (SELIM), Santiago, 24-27 September 1991, ed. by Teresa Fanego. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, pp. 193-201 [second author, with María José López-Couso].